Life Lately.......

My good friend Lisha suggested that I should write about my life for the last month or so. It's been a whirlwind to say the least.



On February 25, my sister called to say my Mother was being taken to the hospital by ambulance. I was only 45 minutes away but Rose persuaded me to wait for the physician's diagnosis. Late that afternoon we were told that she would be admitted once a bed was available. Mother suffers from Alzheimer's and could not be left alone so we (the 3 sisters) mapped out a plan to take care of Mother around the clock. Since sister #3 lives in Florida, I took the first night. We were blessed to have been assigned a quarrantine room. This allowed us to have a buffer or sink area between the hallway and the room itself. How wonderful to miss all those hospital noises. The room was also large and allowed us to have a cot and a couple of comfy chairs. I actually slept pretty well the nights I stayed! My FL sister, Peggy, took the night shift for 5 days, knowing she would have to go home for a doctor's appointment the next week. God bless her for that. The outcome was a severe urinary tract infection, a kidney stone and several other kidney related problems. After 10 days Mother was taken back to the nursing home. If you know anything about dementia, you realize she had gotten into the hospital routine by that time and now had to go back to the nursing home routine. Not good. There have been 2 kidney procedures since her dismissal from the hospital with a radiology procedure to be performed tomorrow. All this takes its toll on someone easily confused. Mother is slowly recovering.....



My daughter and her family travelled to Michigan on March 7 to visit her in-laws. They had a wonderful time until my grandson, Wally, had a sledding accident and fractured his skull, eye and nose. He spent 5 days in a Wisconsin hospital before flying home. At his initial visit to Children's Hospital in B'ham, AL, the doctor warned Peggilyn that if Wally should start leaking spinal fluid they would have to operate quickly to minmize the possibility of contracting menengitis. Well, that is exactly what happened, so on April 1 my grandson had brain surgery. He has recovered rapidly and hopes to have all 45 staples removed on Friday. Yes, I did say 45 staples. He will probably miss the remainder of the school year but should be able to move to the 3rd grade by doing his work at home.



My life has been a whirlwind, a tornado, a rollercoaster.......leaving me with little or no control over things. Not good from my point of view. I have learned to lean more on God, ask for help from Him and my friends and focus on the positives in my life. Bad things happen and I've had a streak of bad things going on recently. Today, Mother is much better and still recognizes me and Wally is the happy smiling child who owns a big part of my heart.



I'm exhausted from reliving all that's happened and I left out a lot of the details.....but it has helped to write about my life, lately.........

Gratitude

count your many blessings, name them one by one.........

Recently my friend Lisha completed blogging 30 days of gratitude. I was encouraged by her take on things for which she was grateful. Today has not been the best day of my life, however, it has certainly not been the worst. So, to put things in perspective here are some blessings in my life:

1. A God who loves me......
2. A husband who loves me......
3. My family...........
4. My church.........
5. My church family..........
6. My job (at church).......
7. My friend, Lisha, who has picked me up so many times recently.......
8. Craig & Mark J (I could not be in ministry with better people)...........
9. Volunteers who take care of church business in my absence..........
10. The ability to find humor in most things and laugh at myself when necessary.........

.......count you many blessings, see what God has done!

Celebrate.......

Today was a good day. After arising at 5:00 am to spend thirty minutes manning the Holy Week Prayer Wall, I downed a quick cup of coffeee, showered, dressed and made my way to church along with my hubby. We arrived around 7:15 am just as the Sunrise Service was adjourning. I actually look forward to these long days at church. I am blessed beyond measure to be able to spend a major part of my time serving the Lord and others, at the Mulder Church. My plan was to catch the early service as well as the late service. I was astounded at the crowd for the 8:15 service. It was so crowded that I gave up my plans to attend so someone could have a seat. Total in worship at 8:15 without nursery numbers:220. PTL! During the wait time for Praise Band rehearsal, I helped my friend Lisha prepare flowers so our children could decorate a cross. Once that was finished I moved to a room adjacent to Carter Hall to pray for the services.......Well, the Praise Band warmed up and the people flocked to the 10:45 service, all 255 of them (no children's numbers included)! I'm thinking Craig's guesstimate of 540 total in attendance is going to be very close. I'll have the final count tomorrow. All 255 of those people were worshipping and praising God...AWESOME!



Immediately after church we travelled to AC to visit my mother, my sister and our daughters along with their families. The children were so cute looking for those Easter eggs!



What a glorious day. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Celebrate......................

Travel Time

Yesterday, I took a trip to Atlanta, not for fun or for business, but to meet my grandson at the airport. (See previous blog about THE ACCIDENT). Bob and I left early enough to stop and have breakfast together in Opelika. We hardly ever have our morning meal together, so it was nice to able to eat, have coffee and just talk. It was also nice to not be surrounded by children with big ears. As we traveled closer to Hartzfield-Jackson International, the questions about how Wally would look and if he weathered the trip well, began to surface. Arriving at the airport about an hour before the scheduled arrival, we learned that the departure from Green Bay had been delayed due to the rainy weather in Dallas. So we waited and waited and waited. Finally the board showed flight 4684 had landed.....and we waited....the board showed flight 4684 had arrived....and we waited...........then my cell phone rang. It was my daughter saying they were here and where was I? Of course, due to all the 911 regulations you cannot reach a gate without a ticket, so we waited in the Atrium..........and we waited...and waited. Finally, I heard someone say, "Momma" and there they were, the daughter and the grandson. Wally with 2 black eyes and a very flat place on his skull and his mother one tired girl. Braving the rain that had moved in we headed for the parking lot and the van. Bob went on ahead to bring the car closer. What a blessing he is. About 45 minutes into our return trip we stop at Steak & Shake for a late lunch. Wally always orders chicken, but this time he wanted fish.....has the skull fracture changed his taste? We resumed our trip stopping only at a WalMart to purchase the things you might need when you've been away from home for 10 days. At last, we got them to their home, weary but happy to be there. Bob and I continued our travels alone arriving just in time to take communion at out Wednesday service.



Our church is sponsoring a prayer wall this week and my assigned prayer time is 10:30 pm-11:00 pm. I was so tired that my good friend, Lisha, offered to pray in my stead last night. Have I told ya'll how much I love that woman? She's the best and is always willing to do anything to help me out and lately, I've needed lots of help! Anyway, after 9 uninterrrupted hours of sleep, I'm almost recovered from my trip........and looking forward to my next.....travel time!